Date: April 27, 2017
Host: Jim Schneider
Listen: MP3 | Order
After a review of the text of Romans 1:18-28, Jim presented listeners with the following evidence proving how the LGBTQ+ agenda is being pushed in schools:
The National Education Association is America’s largest professional employee organization committed to advancing the cause of public education. Their 3 million members work at every level of education from pre-school to university graduate programs. They have affiliate organizations in every state and in more than 14,000 communities across the nation. They describe John Stocks, their executive director, as a national leader in the fight to transform America’s public schools.
The NEA has a section on sexual orientation and gender identity. It notes that although progress has been made since the Stonewall riots in New York City, LGBT adherents still face discrimination and intolerance based upon pervasive stereotypes and myths. Jim read the steps that the NEA recommends that its members can take to address these issues effectively in their schools or communities.
Jim then looked at their national training program on safety, bias and LGBT issues. It consists of 4 workshops that can be designed for all school personnel who are interested in addressing LGBT issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.
The next item mentioned was the Time to Thrive conference, happening April 28-30th in Washington, D.C. The conference is designed to promote safety, inclusion and well-being for LGBTQ youth. It’s presented by the National Education Association, the American Counseling Association and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.
Vincent ‘Vinnie’ Pompei is the director of the conference as well as director of the Youth Well-Being Project at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. Before joining that he was president for the California Association of School Counselors. He spent more than 10 years as a middle school teacher and a high school counselor. He was an LGBTQ cadre trainer for the NEA and authored the LGBTQ section of the American School Counselor Association’s national model. He was also a chapter president for PFLAG.
The Time To Thrive conference book has a section concerning pronouns and how using a pronoun that doesn’t match a person’s identity can hurt and frustrate individuals and make them feel invisible. It goes on to describe how to avoid any hard feelings.
There’s also a ‘Welcoming School’ page, the only elementary resource of its kind that is LGBTQ and gender inclusive. There will be youth ambassadors in attendance with some speaking while others will hold workshops.
There’s so much more information that Jim presents regarding this agenda but one item that stands out is the conference workshop called: Bearing the Cross: How to Support LGBT Youth Through Spiritual Struggles. The description for this workshop mentions how the majority of young people are still under the religious guidance and mandates of their parents and guardians. This workshop seeks to equip adult allies with the knowledge and best practices to help support youth dealing with what is described as religious oppression in homes and communities of faith.
